Athens, Ohio

Legislation: Possession of less than 100 grams of marijuana is a citable offense only, with a fine of $100. Possession of 100 grams or more is punishable by a fine of up to $250. For possession of 200 grams or more, the penalty increases to a possible sentence of 6 months – one year in jail. Possession of 1,000 grams or more is punishable by 1 – 5 years in prison. Any possession of less than 5,000 grams does not carry the presumption of prison, which leaves available the possibility of probation. Possession of 5,000 grams of marijuana or more is punishable by 1 – 5 years in prison. For any amount or 20,000 grams or more the penalty increases to a mandatory minimum sentence of eight years in prison.

Ohio almost decriminalized personal use of reasonable amounts, except “Possession of paraphernalia is punishable by up to 30 days in jail and sale of paraphernalia is punishable by up to 90 days in jail.
For all drug convictions, including minor misdemeanors, the offender’s driver’s license is also suspended for a period of 6 months – 5 years. Professional licenses are also suspended.” source: NORML.com You can read this PDF detailing the serious consequences they add on to the supposedly “minor misdemeanors” http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/pdf/col_sanc_pdfs/state_details_pdfs/OHIO.pdf

* If violated, a mandatory jail term of three consecutive days (seventy-two consecutive hours.) The court may sentence an offender to both an intervention program and a jail term. The court may impose a jail term in addition to the three-day mandatory jail term or intervention program. However, in no case shall the cumulative jail term imposed for the offense exceed six months.
* The court may suspend the execution of the three-day jail term under this division if the court, in lieu of that suspended term, places the offender under a community control sanction and requires the offender to attend, for three consecutive days, a drivers’ intervention program.
* License may be suspended from a definite period of six months to three years.”

Law enforcement: Athens is a quaint little college town nestled along the Hocking River. It is the home of Ohio University, one of the most liberal universities in the country. Although it would be really foolish to smoke a joint in front of a cop, you can feel safe walking down the street smoking a joint and not having to worry about being ratted out. Hell, some cops don’t care, but they will still bust you because it’s their job. Athens is located in Athens County, which lies right next to Meigs County, home of the infamous “Meigs County Gold” marijuana.

Where to buy marijuana: The first place you should check is any one of the Ohio University residence halls. There are usually multiple dealers in each building, especially on the front four buildings on South Green. If you can’t find a dealer, someone will definitely know in what direction to point you.
If that doesn’t work, try walking around uptown on Court Street. It’s usually pretty busy and you can spot stoners from a mile away.
If you’re not comfortable with THAT, which you shouldn’t be, try going into some of the bars uptown and scope out the clients/workers/barflies. If you can’t find it there, the whole town must be dry.

Marijuana prices: Wide ranging prices. Lots of imports from Columbus, OH as it is the biggest neighboring city, but Columbus weed is typically more expensive than normal.

Marijuana brands: Most dealers don’t really know what brand they have, just what quality. Lately though I’ve seen dumpster (which is great, dont be confused by the name) and lemon G.
Meigs County Gold is around, but it’s more properly described as fluffy outdoor high quality bud. Most dealers wouldnt know Meigs County Gold is MGC unless they know who it came from directly from Meigs.

More information: In general, Athens is a pretty laid back hippy progressive town. Good places to go and smoke are Strouds Run State Park, Bong Hill (appropriately named although it’s quite a climb.. but it overlooks the entire city and it spectacular at sunset), and the Ohio University bike path that follows the perimeter of the campus.